Always Be Calm When You Punish.

When it becomes necessary to use the rod upon your child be sure you possess a calmness in your soul. It requires much grace for true parents to whip their children. Before you punish them you should show them what great wrong they have done and how God is displeased, and that you do not punish them for your own pleasure — but because you love them.

To the dear parents who read this we wish to exhort you to give great diligence in cultivating the affectionate side of your nature. Do not be careless and unmindful of the dear little ones happiness. Do not be cold and indifferent toward them. Enter into their joys and sorrows with a warm heart. Parents oftentimes remark when their child gets hurt in some way, "Well it is good enough for you; maybe it will teach you something." Oh, may that heart be softened to tender sympathy, so you will make the dear child feel how sorry you are because he has been hurt, then teach him how he must not engage in such things, and then he will avoid being injured. Your kind words of sympathy will relieve the pain by their influence upon the heart. Your cold indifferent words make deeper wounds in the heart than were made in the flesh.

Seek God in much earnest prayer to tender your affections, to refine your nature, to make you very sensitive to the feelings of your child, and to help you to love the tender "olive plants" round about your fireside. Some day there may be a vacant chair, and there can be no sweeter joy on earth to your sorrowing heart than to know you did what you could to make the little one happy and train its feet for the glory world.

Kind words are flowers of beauty rare;
Keep them blooming throughout the year.

-Charles Orr

(Successful Child Training)

Do You Grumble?

"The Lord has heard all your grumblings against Him!"

 Exodus 16:8

Does God really hear every discontented word which I ever speak?

Does He hear when I grumble about the weather . . .
about the hard winter,
about the late spring,
about the dry summer,
about the wet harvest?

Does He hear when I grumble . . .
about the frosts,
about the drought,
about the high winds,
about the storms?

Does He hear when I grumble . . .
about my circumstances,
about the hardness of my lot,
about my losses and disappointments?

If we could get into our heart, and keep there continually, the consciousness that God hears every word we speak—would we murmur and complain so much as we now do?

We are careful never to speak words which would give pain to the hearts of those we love. Are we as careful not to say anything that will grieve our heavenly Father?

"I tell you this—that you must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak!" Matthew 12:36

"He who complains of the weather—complains of the God who ordains the weather!" William Law

-JR Miller

If You Will Not Work, You Will Not Eat

"Every skilled woman spun with her hands—and brought what she had spun—blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen." Exodus 35:25

It didn't harm their hands a bit either! Some dainty women are like the lilies, "They do not labor or spin!" 

They keep their hands soft and white. They think any kind of work would mar the delicate beauty of their fingers. But they make a great mistake. The hands that are beautiful in heaven's sight—are not the dainty ones that are never roughened or hardened by toil.

Anything is beautiful, just in the measure in which it fulfills the mission for which it was made. Hands were made to work; and an idle, useless hand, no matter how delicate and fair, is not a lovely hand!

These ancient women had learned to spin, and now they spun for God. Here we see how everyday talents and occupations, may be turned over into God's service. The young women of today do not spin much; many of them never saw a spinning-wheel; but they have other common talents and abilities which they may consecrate to Christ.

                                                               - JR Miller

"For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat"

2 Thessalonians 3:10

Today, not Tomorrow

"She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying." Mark 14:8

       Many people would have kept the jar of perfume until Jesus was dead, and would then have broken it to anoint his cold body. At least, that is the way too many of us do in these days. We wait until our friend dies—and then send our flowers and speak our words of appreciation.

      Should we not learn a lesson from Mary? The kind words we mean to speak when our friends are dead—let us speak while they can hear them! The flowers we mean to send for their coffin—let us send to brighten the rough paths for their feet. The epitaphs we mean to put upon white marble—let us carve in deeds of gentle love while our friends are with us. Words of cheer today—are what people crave.
     "Withhold all eulogies when I am dead, All noisy sorrow;Give me the tender word today Instead of tears tomorrow."
(JR Miller)

Walk with God

     

 "So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran." Genesis 12:4

      

      That was faith. Obedience proved it. Abram did not know where he was going; he had simply the call of God and a promise. But he asked no questions. He did not insist on knowing how his journey would come out, how profitable it would be, just what he would get in exchange for the land he was leaving and the sacrifice he was making. Quietly, without question or hesitation, he arose, cut the ties that bound him to his old home, and departed.

      

      That is the kind of faith all of us should have, whenever God gives us a call and a promise. Some people want to see where they are going before they will begin to follow Christ; but that is not walking by faith at all.

      We should not trouble ourselves to know where we are to be led, if only we know that God is leading us. His guidance is safe; and we should be willing to trust him, do precisely what he says, and go just where he leads, without asking any questions. Abraham's life is a picture of a true "walk with God."
- JR Miller

Sorrows are but incidents in life...

        "After the death of Moses the LORD's servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant. He said—Now that my servant Moses is dead—you must lead my people across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them." Joshua 1:1-2

          Sorrow came to you yesterday—and emptied your home. Your first impulse now is to give up and sit down in despair amid the wrecks of your hopes. But you dare not do it. You are in the line of battle, and the crisis is at hand. To falter a moment, would be to imperil some holy interest. Other lives would be harmed by your pausing. Holy interests would suffer—should your hands be folded. You must not linger even to indulge your grief. Sorrows are but incidents in life, and must not interrupt us. We must leave them behind, while we press on to the things that are before.

        Then God has so ordered, too, that in pressing on in duty—we shall find the truest, richest comfort for ourselves. Sitting down to brood over our sorrows, the darkness deepens about us and creeps into our heart, and our strength changes to weakness. But if we turn away from the gloom, and take up the tasks and duties to which God calls us—the light will come again and we shall grow stronger!

(JR Miller)

A New Journey

Many times I tried so hard to be up to date in publishing new posts here in my blog but poor me I couldn't keep up. With my husband finally commissioned to be the Pastor of a mission church, we basically come and go from our house to the mission place.

I know there will be great adjustments and some difficulties and lots of challenges ahead of us but on top of that I am actually excited to what God has prepared for us in that new place. Being a missionary family and a missionary wife post great responsibilities but I know that God had chosen us to be in that place and God will enable and will qualify those He had chosen.

We had been living in two places and sleeping in two houses for the past months since we did not fully move in yet to the new place. We are here in our old house (staff house actually of the church where my husband is working) during weekdays and go to the mission place on weekends. It’s not that far but sometimes travelling is a challenge if we won’t go early in the afternoon of Fridays. No taxi will say yes to us especially if they see that we had tons of loads =) (that’s because we are slowly gathering and moving our things and we carry what we can every time we go there).

So those are the things that are going on with me and this family of mine for the past months. And so now we love what we are doing and loving the new place and loving the new journey God has given us.

And I am excited to tell you all that finally we had our first Ladies Fellowship last Saturday. We are using Myrna Alexander’s After God’s Heart Bible Study Series on Loving and Obeying God based on the Book of 1 Samuel. It’s a great study and as a Christian Woman it is my desire to be a woman after God’s heart. I am happy that God had given me the privilege to lead a Bible study as part of our church’s ladies ministry.

We finish our first topic, Coping with Pain where we study how Hannah coped up with her pain of being barren and for being constantly ridiculed by her adversary. We learn some Biblical ways and principles on dealing with painful and difficult situations. We also discover about faithfulness both of Hannah and of God.

And one thing I could not shake off is the principle that when we are facing life difficulties, we should turn to God first not to anything or anyone else and just give Him our emotions and tell Him everything. Oftentimes we seek relief in life’s hardships by turning to people, friends and relatives or by going out and relaxing instead of facing them and laying them at the feet of Jesus first.

So there goes my week =) Thanking and Praising God for His blessings! =)

Glorify God in the Fire

"Every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit!" John 15:2 

"I have refined you in the furnace of suffering!" Isaiah 48:10 

Fire not only burns and purges, but it separates one thing from another.

God Almighty knows that we are often purged more in one hour by a good sound trial — than by a "thousand manifestations of His love. It is a fine thing to come purified, to come pardoned out of the furnace of affliction. The furnace is intended to purge us to separate the precious from the vile, the chaff from the wheat. And God, in order to do this, is pleased to put us into one fire after another.

There are some roads which are finely paved and smooth — but the King's road to Heaven is strewed with crosses and afflictions!

My brethren, we need to be purged! How apt are we to want to go to Heaven upon a featherbed. But many go lying upon beds of pain and languishing, which is the King's highway there.

God will not put us into the fire — if there was not something to be purged away. The grand thing, is to learn to glorify God in the fire.

We glorify God in the fire, when we quietly endure it as a chastisement, and when we bear it patiently. It is a dreadful thing when we are saying with Cain, "My punishment is greater than I can bear!" But the language of a soul that glorifies God in the fire is this, "Shall I, Lord, shall I a sinful man, complain for the punishment of my sins?"

We glorify God in the fire, when, though we feel pain and anguish, we at the same time say, "Lord, we deserve this and ten thousands times more!" 

We glorify God in the fire also, when we are really and fully persuaded that God will put us in the furnace only for our good, and His own glory. 

We glorify God in the fire when we say, "Lord don't let the fire go out until it has purged away all my dross!" 

We glorify God in the fire when the soul can say, "Here I am, my God, do with me as seems good in Your sight! I know that I shall not have one unnecessary stroke!"

We glorify God in the fire when we are not grumbling, but humbly submitting to His will. When that awful message was brought to Eli, what does he say? "It is the LORD; let Him do what seems good to Him." Let my children be killed, whatever is done, it is the Lord's doing! 

We glorify God in the fire when we rejoice in Him — when we can thank God for striking us — when we can thank Him for whipping us!

Happy are you who have got into Christ's fire!

-George Whitefield

Rejoicing in Suffering

 Rejoicing in Suffering

A little reminder for the day:

^“ And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;  And patience, experience; and experience, hope:” Romans 5:3-4

"At first we would say that a home into which no sorrow had ever come, is the happiest home. It has had only prosperity. It is a Christian home, too, and has all the blessings of true religion. It is a home of love, ideal in its fellowship. But it has never known a sorrow. The circle is unbroken. No tears have been shed in it. We would say that this is the happiest home we know.

But it takes sorrow to perfect 'love's happiness'. There is little doubt that the sweetest home, is one in which there has been grief. We do not find the richest things in the Bible, until we pass into shadows. We do not see the stars, until night comes. There is no rainbow, except when there are clouds. We do not find out the richest love, even of our human friends, while we are strong and well and prosperous; it is only when we are in some grief or trouble, that we discover how much they love us. And we do not get the best of God's grace—until we are in sorrow.

Besides, grief softens our hearts, makes us capable of deeper affection and sympathy, and draws us nearer to each other. After a household has stood together around the coffin of one of its own—it is a new tenderness that unites the members. Suffering together, brings a new closeness in loving. Thus, even sorrow may be put among the elements of home happiness."

-          (JR Miller - Miller's Year Book)

Suffering is one thing that all Christians experience but the blessing of it all is that as a believer we have the Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to rejoice in the midst of suffering. Others may not understand this especially the non-believers but the way we, believers weather the hard times in our lives can become a wonderful testimony to others.

There is pain, that one cannot be denied, we can be honest about it but it is still possible to experience genuine rejoicing. We can have peace and joy in spite of our circumstances. As for me when I am going through one of these experiences, I reflect on it, I try by God’s grace to listen to the truths and see the lesson that He want to teach me. Suffering is a good thing because they produce a fruit of righteousness in my life. God is using life’s difficulties to build my character. As the verse say: it produces patience which in turn strengthens my character, deepen my trust in God and give me confidence about the future: that is hope =) Sufferings should draw us closer to God. 

Help me Lord, to rejoice in sufferings knowing that you are working something in my life. Help me not to panic but have a steady and stronger faith in You.